In my quest for perfectly performing 4A (and 3C?) spirals, I have tried many a (supposedly) well-built conditioner. While I promised myself to stick to KISS a few months back on my grow-out process, I made the mistake of perusing some threads on NaturallyCurly's forums. Big mistake. Once again, I am prowling the health food stores, armoured, saddled, bearing a shield and questing for that Holy Grail conditioner.

Why.

Why.

WHY?

Well, what I found (at VitaminShoppe for about $10.49) was a well built conditioner; I'd read wonders about Aubrey Organics among women of all hair types, but this one was supposed to be a shoe-in for dryer / tightly coiled strands. In my awesome lack of ability to learn from previous mistakes (*cough* http://www.skincaretalk.com/t/28551/bergamot-oil-to-prevent-hair-shedding/60#post_472541 *cough*), I grabbed yet ANOTHER of Ms. Aubrey's conditioners to use based on hear-say vs. my own experience.

First off, it's still a decent brand, but at $11 a bottle, I'm at least expecting something w/ decent slip and penetrative moisturizing abilities. I firmly believe that if you're going to charge more, you need to DO more, and that is not the impression I got from the Honeysuckle Rose, the brand's supposedly most humectant offering. I cleansed the scalp, did a root-tip with this stuff, and was not impressed.

One note: whenever I use an AO conditioner, my hair gets ... 'hard'. The 'hardness' that I experienced with this one is nothing compared to the GPB Protein conditioner, but it was still there. I expect the conditioning stage to provide penetrating moisture to my parch-prone strands, so this one, sadly went back to the store after one use.

Overall, I have to say that this offering was a so-so experience in terms of moisture and slip, despite an all star ingredients list and organic formulation. I am going to be shelfing / overlooking AO and her line up indefinitely, and I highly recommend avoiding her shampoo/conditioner line if you are protein-sensitive, which my hair appears to be. Despite the fact that this particular conditioner doesn't list a protein / protein precursor, I still got the hard feeling that accompanies using anything w/a protein in it.

4 Comments:

Thanks for this review; I have been looking at this product since last summer, and now I'm glad I didn't buy. I have long hair that is around a 3C or more, but w/o humidity, I can control it and no one would ever guess.

Contrary to the review, this is one of my favorite conditioners. I have 3C/4A hair and it's very moisturizing for me. The instructions state to use the conditioner before you wash. That didn't work for me. What I do is I wash my hair first and while me hair is still wet, I apply a generous amount of conditioner and I let it sit for about 15 mins. After 15 mins, I rinse and then apply my leave in, which is often the same conditioner. Try using it my way. It's seriously one of my staples.

This is my all-time favorite. I loved it when I was natural and now I love it as a relaxed girl. Sorry it didn't work. For me it works best on well clarified hair....I love Dr. Bronner's castile soap for that.

Like I said guys ... protein sensitive. I don't doubt that it's a solid moisturizer. The effects that I get from protein overload from the presence of the stuff in ALL the products negates whatever moisturizing properties it contains!